How I Made $800,000 Last Year Blogging

I grew up near the ocean in Southern California in the early 1990’s. During that time, my dad would take me sailing on an 27ft boat called the “Bold Lady”. We would navigate the waters from Long Beach Harbor to Catalina Island for the weekend. A 27 mile trip across the Pacific Ocean.

On our first voyage, I remember having a great sense of doubt. I thought to myself, “there’s no motor! How are we ever going to get there?” But after my father thoroughly explained the tools and tricks of a well prepared sailor, I was slowly persuaded. He showed me how we could use the wind, be resourceful, leverage information from the boat’s instruments, and watch the horizon.

Looking back, my childhood fascination of using problem solving for getting from point “A” to point “B”, has become a helpful skill in my professional life. Blogging isn’t much different than sailing. It’s one of those careers that seem impossible until you understand how to “use the wind”.

While this article won’t have explain the entire solution for making money as a blogger, it will touch on a few critical tips to point you in the right direction. And at the end of this lesson, I’ll share a another means to learn even more.

6 Critical Steps For 6 Figure Blogging:

1. Content Isn’t King

Let’s get real. People don’t have time to be loyal to more than a few blogs. Shockingly, too many new bloggers think wrong here. Inexperienced teachers state, “content is KING!” And with this new information, novice bloggers begin creating lots of new content. As a result, their hopes are set in the weak strategy of, “If I write it, they will come.” But they often don’t.

Because content isn’t king, usefulness is.

It took me a few years to let this truth sink in. Like many of you, I was the blogger writing for quantity and quality. Sure, my articles were pretty good too. But today, I have shifted to only writing one article per week. It’s not about the word count. It’s not about the timing. It’s not about a catchy headline. It’s about creating a lesson. It’s about offering value. It’s about sharing authentic, vulnerable emotion. My articles are easy to read. They’re empathetic. And they’re useful. Since this shift, my readers have not only been more consistent, but more committed. My blog has become their guide on their life’s journey.

So ask yourself: How can I create useful-rich content that helps my readers get to where they want to be? How can you step into the shoes of your readers and offer them a lesson more valuable than than those of your competitors?

2. It’s About You

This might be the number one insecurity of new bloggers. Novice bloggers have a deep sense of illegitimacy. They believe, “I don’t have the authority or the experience or the training.” But that’s a lie.

Our world has convinced us we need qualifiers to be valuable to others. It just isn’t true. Successful blogging is made up of writers who can share their story. What they’re learning. What they’re feeling. The real secret to success as a blogger is relatability.

People don’t follow blogs, they follow people.

Newspapers columnists have proven this truth for over 100 years. Articles from a faceless website, magazine, or newspaper just don’t connect with the reader’s emotion. Your audience is looking for attachment. They are looking for someone who inspires them or shares their reality.

So don’t be shy in your writing. Write from your story. Share your uniquness. Don’t worry about your credential. There’s nothing more humbling than realizing thousands of people enjoy you just for who you are.

So ask yourself: How can I include more “me” on my blog? Have you added personal photos? Do you include your story in every article?

3. Capture Is Critical

People often brag about how many visitors their blog received in a given month. I smile. Because it’s never about how many people come to your site today that matters, it’s about how many will come tomorrow.

Returning visitors is my key metric as a blogger. It’s the core of my success. Any blogger with a catchy headline can have a one-hit-wonder. But you can’t fake 1,000,000 monthly readers 23 months in a row.

Returned visitors come back because you captured them. For me, you’ll notice I have opportunities strategically positioned across my entire site. First time readers can join my email, follow me on social media, buy my book, register for my events, or enroll into my course.

The goal of the blogger is to pull readers into your platform. Bring them into your universe where you can make your content a habit for their life.

So ask yourself: Am I effectively capturing emails, likes, and follows? Am I offering other ways for new readers to get into my universe?

4. Influence Equals Income

Now most people will say, “bloggers make money on ads.” Sure. That’s true. And it’s an important piece of your income model. But the real wealth is driven by influence. People ask me all the time, “How are you making $65,000 per month blogging?” While this is a very complex question, I can assure you the foundation is built on influence.

Over the past few years (I’ve only been blogging for 3 years), I have built trust one reader at a time by producing consistent, useful content. This consistency combined with quality and history (3 years) has created influence.

People listen to what I say. I have earned the authority, trust, and results required to sway people’s opinion.

With this influence, I can sell them quality products, books, and courses. I can also sell them tickets and consulting and even personalized advertisements. Your personality becomes the value. Your personalized stamp of approval or endorsement is what brands are looking for. Your name tied to theirs, is a win.

Surprisingly, building influence is not that difficult either. This is why you see make-up vloggers, food podcasters, mommy bloggers, and Instagram photographers all making 6-7 figure incomes.

The lesson is this: Influence is the result of consistent, useful content over years at a time. If we want to make a healthy income blogging, influence should be your intention. There is no shortcut to influence either… But I can promise you this, one year from now… you’ll wish you started today.

5. Platform Is The Goal

Let’s zoom out for a moment. I don’t want you to think that building a widely read blog is the goal. It’s not. The goal is to build a platform.

For reference reasons I define platform as: The culmination of useable influence owned by you.

Your platform includes your blog. But it also includes your social media accounts, email lists, mailing addresses, podcast subscribers, readers of your books, and students enrolled in your curriculum (if you sell courses). Consequently, this should alter your entire growth strategy. Building a platform requires a multi-faceted approach to influence. You’re required to acknowledge and discern the difference of communication and culture for each area of influence.

For me, building my platform goes far beyond my blog posts. It spills into my books, my speaking engagements, the way I communicate on Pinterest, the vulnerabilities I share on Instagram. But don’t be confused. They all share the same mission, the same vision, and the same goal. Build an active and engaged platform.

So ask yourself: Are you building a blog or a platform? What needs to change to start putting your platform as the goal? Also, where is your platform weak and what can you do to strengthen it?

6. Shortcuts & Blindspots (My Favorite)

I believe if I sat with you for two hours, I would save you an entire year of blogging mistakes. In 120 minutes you would jump 365 days closer to success. I know this for two reasons:

First, we love shortcuts. What apps do you use, what tools work best, what topics perform well, how should I structure my weekly emails, when should I post, how do I get people to follow me on social media? The answers to these questions are MASSIVE shortcuts. And shortcuts get us to where we want to go, faster.

Second, is blindspots. We want to avoid the mistakes others have made. We want to know what hasn’t worked for others so we don’t spend hours, days, or even months investing in the wrong areas. Revealing blindspots is a critical skill in being a successful blogger.

I’m going to do both for you. This isn’t some corny sales pitch either. This is something I really believe in. Over the past few years we’ve had over 2,0000 people start their own profitable blog and business with our StartupCamp curriculum. If you’re serious about building an online influence and writing for a living consider my offer below.

Awesome post, Dale. I would say another key for you has been *consistency*. Not only consistency with USEFUL content, but consistency in your message (and platform). I have listened to plenty of podcasts, read articles and posts, and watched interviews, and your message doesn’t waver. I appreciate that, and I am sure others do too. You are crushin’ it, my man; cheers!

Wow, such perfect timing!!!! I am finally launching my blog tomorrow, after waiting years to have the courage to put myself out there. I got the domain name in 2011, and this post really touched me because it’s exactly what I’ve been feeling in my heart. Thank you

Great post! Thank you Dale.
People are afraid to share their story or share too much. I was quilty of this myself few years back. I didn’t want people to know me, deep down. I was afraid of being judged etc. I had a friend who kept postponing his blog message as he was afraid that if he shared too much, people will not buy his book as he already wrote everything in his blog for free. Once I convinced him of otherwise, and he was able to view my point, book sales went up as people liked his blog and what he had to say.

Thanks for the insights shared here, Dale. I’m considered registering for Blog Camp but have a question: How much of it is geared to explaining how to launch? I ask because my site has already been up for a year, it is generating revenue but I want to ramp up considerably. Will the content to relevant to bloggers at my particular stage of the game?
Thanks so much.

Hey Brandie! The event will have a small portion to basic setup but most of the event will be relevant content to you. Even the basic stuff will likely make you want to go back and fix what you have. This event is for people like you.

Great article. Thanks for the words of counsel!
I totally resonate with the end of #4, and in my case I wish I had started 5 years ago.
After getting hit with that reality I took the leap to start a blog, and I’m hoping to inspire others to do the same.

Thanks for this article, I started a blog in January which is centred on helping teenagers and young women to be confident in themselves. But I have fear of truly being open about my own journey to where I am presently, which means that sometimes I have not much to say, but the desire to want to write is so high. So how would you advise I improve on my blog?

I tell my story because people want to know your story. My story is my selling point, the thing that separates me from all people in human history. We each have a fabulous, inspired story to tell if we would just speak up to tell it. I infuse all types of my stories on Blogging from Paradise to create a 1 of a kind experience for my readers.

After following this blog for a couple of months now, I finally got the energy to start one myself, http://www.wisdomforwinning.net. As I was going through this article, I really loved point 4, Influence equals income. Right now am building a steady amount of subscribers and I can my traffic growing each day. In just a month, I have already got 100+ emails on how my content is helping people in their personal lives.

Please check it out if you have some time and advice on how I can join the stratupcamp program in order to monetize my blog so I can earn some passive income from it. Looking forward to hear from you.

Dale, I must say that you have been instrumental in my success as a blogger. I took part in your 2014 blog camp webinar just before launching my blog and it wouldn’t have gone as well had I not done that. I was also a part of your launch team for People Over Profit. Everything you do inspires me to be better and I thank you for that.

Hi Dale!
I came across your site and have once again found myself frustrated.
I feel the more I research the more confused I become. Right now a lot of big income earning blogs are sharing their successes and what they’ve done to achieve said success. I feel like I’m continually getting conflicting views.
If all the income numbers are true then why is one person saying “X,Y,Z” is the only way to truly be successful. Then someone else comes along and says “no you must follow these a, b, c steps in order to have lasting success”.
I want so badly to succeed as a blogger but with all of the contrary articles on what merits blogger success I feel extremely discouraged…

Thank you for your advice Dale! This post goes WAY beyond the typical “be sure to post on social media, try guest posting, post every .single.day” advice that’s merely recycled throughout the blogosphere.
I started a pre-post worksheet for myself where I have to answer “what is your goal of this post?” and “what are you giving to your readers?” before I start writing. Having these in mind helped me tremendously over the last few posts. I feel like I’m actually contributing something to my readers (and feel less of the newbie insecurity you mentioned!).
I’ll definitely be bookmarking this for future reference and encouragement! Thanks again!